You throw the ball. You catch the ball. You hit the ball…Of course, baseball fans know that this line from Bull Durham is far from true, part of the humor of the movie and a huge part of the fun of the game. This blog is a space to talk about baseball, being a baseball fan, all of those things that make the game fun and the Angels, because they make baseball fun for me.

Friday, literally before dawn, we rolled out of Los Angeles for Yosemite National Park to clean out my in-laws cabin for renovations – with great vacation options come great responsibility. Four hours later, we hit Fresno and my in-laws called to say no go, the cabin is snowed in. And I don’t mean, wimpy California snowed in, I mean my husband and I and his cousins digging all afternoon just to get to the shed to turn the power on and then starting on the cabin door, snowed in. So we grabbed shakes at In-N-Out and headed home. Breaking down the weekend so far: failed plans, I need to work a few hours later today to salvage the vacation day for a return trip to Yosemite, an eight hour drive for milkshakes, and unexpectedly getting to watch the game on Friday and Saturday. Hmmm…what does it say about me that I still think this adds up to a win? Sitting here luxuriating over coffee, brunch and an actual, live, for really real it counts, Angels game? I believe it says I have my priorities straight.

My thoughts on the season so far? Opening Day absolutely rocked. Jered Weaver pitched a Gem. Torii Hunter’s bat loves those K stadium fountains. I love, love, love our outfield…as I may have mentioned a time or two in the past. Jordan Walden continues to have my vote for closer of the future. Twelve hits! The bullpen got roughed up but didn’t actually blow the lead. It was a great game, a little too exciting there at the end, but a scary win is absolutely better than a sedate loss.

Mind you, the season is so young it isn’t even in diapers yet, it’s still in those pampers infant swaddling things, but I feel like I am finally watching Angels baseball after a poor imitation last season. The bats. The manufactured runs. The sacrifice bunts turned base hits. Both guys you would (Torii!) and would not (Happy Birthday, Jeff Mathis) expect going yard. Nailing the 6-4-3 and 4-6-3 double plays. Flying outfielders – Fleet Pete! Diving catches. Robbed homeruns. Great plays at the wall – heeelloooo Vernon Wells, and I bid you a hearty welcome to the team, good sir. A bullpen with a flair for the dramatic, especially the “closers.” Yes, unfortunately, that’s a hallmark of Angels baseball too, and one the team really needs to work on if we want to defy all of the predictions this season. I wish we’d pulled off the win on Friday but that one was close and, all in all, this is not a bad start to the season. More please, and by that I mean more like Thursday’s game please!

Edit: I said more like Thursday’s game. Thursday’s game! Grrrrrr…the bullpen…and the stranded runners…and the gorram BULLPEN! *Breathes deeply* Excuse me while I swear loudly and pound the coffee table a few more times.

* * * * *

Imagine my pleasant surprise this weekend when a friend of mine confirmed that I was not mistaken in thinking I saw a familiar face in the new Brian Wilson’s epic beard MLB commercial (below)…other than the obvious one, of course. The fiddle player on the right? An old, old friend of ours I am really glad to see getting some commercial work. It amuses me to no end that he is in this particular commercial given that he knows nothing about baseball. He thinks this is one of the strangest ad campaigns he has ever seen. I told him there’s nothing odd about it. It’s just your standard, every day, run of the mill commercial featuring a closer who says his beard is magic and that he’s a certified ninja assassin with a gimp superhero housemate he refers to as the Machine. What could possibly be odd about that?

5 Comments

Brian Wilson is a riot! Love his commercials. The title of this post seemed pretty crazy, but I love the way you brought it together. Your Angels will be right there at the end, for sure, but they are in a very tough division and games against teams like the Royals have to be won.

Mixed bag of a weekend so far for the Halos. I watched the Friday game with Haren pitching, he was solid but not good enough. Kendrick is off to a nice start, but Kazmir…ughhh!http://wrigleyregular.mlblogs.com/

Raysfanboy – He cracks me up too. Thank you, my post titles are often a bit out there – they match the blogger. :) You could not be more right about needing to win games against teams like the Royals. The Angels often start out the season slow, but this was embarrassing.
Russel – Mixed Bag indeed. Outfield great. Hitting muuuuuuch better. Situational hitting better. Rotation from Oh wow to Oh Sh…er…No. And the bullpen? A cautionary tale for frightening small children at the moment, I’m afraid. I’m not sounding the panic alarm just yet, but I hope this weekend inspires management to make a few changes and plug some holes.
— Kristen

Good that baseball is hear for real, but the weather outside is frightfull. It’s raining/snowing/slushing here, too. Hope it clears up by next week.
–Mike
‘Minoring In Baseball’http://burrilltalksbaseball.mlblogs.com

Mike – Yeah, your house probably looks more than a bit like the Yosemite cabin right now. The Yosemite snow willl porbably be on the ground with reinforcements until late April/early May at this point. I hope the weather up by you clears for Spring a lot sooner than that.
— Kristen

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